Results 4,361-4,380 of 23,948 for speaker:Charlie McConalogue

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (16 May 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: ACRES is the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme and is an agri-environment climate measure in Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan (CSP) 2023-2027. The Government has committed €1.5 billion to ACRES over its duration. It has been confirmed that there will not be an extension granted in relation to any of the actions where fencing is required under ACRES. However, an extension has...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (16 May 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has delivered considerable reductions in the backlog of all forestry licences, as well as reductions in the time taken to process newer files. In August 2021, we had over 6,100 licences on hand for processing and this number has now been reduced to just over 2,500. It continues to reduce each week. In 2022 we issued 4,713 licences, which is...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (16 May 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine published the Forestry Licensing Plan 2022 in February last year. The plan informed stakeholders of our targets for the delivery of afforestation, felling and forest road licences, and of our commitment to reducing the backlog and committed to issuing 100 licences, of all types, per week. The Plan committed to issuing 65 felling licences per...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (16 May 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: Under Section 17 of the Forestry Act 2014, the Minister may specify the amount of time that a felling licence is valid for. Section 17(3)(a) states that the felling licence shall be valid for such period as the Minister decides, but shall not exceed 10 years. However, this is qualified by Section 17(3)(b) which permits the Minister to extend the duration of the licence for one or more further...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Brexit Supports (16 May 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: Although there has been a solid and sustained increase in average sheep prices since the end of February, I recognise that sheep farmers are experiencing more difficult market conditions in 2023 compared to recent years. The Government, as the Deputy can appreciate, has no role in determining commodity prices in the sheep sector. However, it is heartening to see that markets are now...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry (16 May 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: The Brexit Voluntary Permanent Decommissioning Scheme was announced in July 2022 and was subsequently published by BIM along with all terms and conditions. A necessary condition of the scheme prior to payments being made, and for the vessel deregistration process is for applicants to supply evidence that the mortgage providers have approved in writing the proposed decommissioning of the...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Social Media (16 May 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: The information requested by the Deputy is being collated by the Department and a reply will be forwarded within 10 working days. As regards the 12 State Bodies under the aegis of my Department, the information requested is an operational matter for the State Bodies themselves. I have referred the Deputy’s question to the Agencies and have requested that a response should issue within...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Equality Issues (16 May 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: The Employment Equality Acts 1998 to 2015 require employers to take appropriate measures, where needed in a particular case, to enable a person with a disability:to have access to employment,to participate or advance in employment,to undergo training,Unless the measures would impose a disproportionate burden on the employer. My Department has a Disability Liaison Officer who fosters awareness...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Staff (16 May 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: My Department has numerous staff members engaged in work relating to import controls functions. The following table shows the number of officers currently deployed as such; Staff with import control duties FTE Agricultural Inspector 1.3 Assistant Agricultural Inspector 15 Assistant...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Bord Bia (16 May 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I can confirm that the promotion of cereals falls under the functions of Bord Bia and as such is an operational matter for Bord Bia. A vibrant and sustainable tillage sector is central to increasing Ireland’s food and feed security while also contributing to climate change objectives. Maintaining the current tillage area with an ambition for further growth is therefore an...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Communications (16 May 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: According to the 2021 Power Report, commissioned by RCÉ, the greyhound industry provides and supports considerable employment both directly and indirectly across the Irish economy. It is estimated that in 2019, the industry supported 4,150 full-time and part-time jobs in the economy. In addition, there are 6,211 active greyhound owners. The total number of people deriving economic...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: International Agreements (16 May 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: Ireland has an existing sanitary agreement for dairy and related products with Algeria. My Department has made a number of representations to Algeria in relation to market access specifically for Infant Formula and has been in ongoing communication with Infant formula companies. An official Department letter was forwarded to the Algerian government on 1st February, which detailed a...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Supports (16 May 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: The objective of the Beef Environmental Efficiency Programme – Suckler (BEEP - S) is to further increase economic and environmental efficiency in the suckler herd through better quality data on herd performance, supporting decision making on farm and support of best practice in welfare management. The person named had not successfully applied for the 2020 Beef Environmental...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sports Funding (11 May 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I propose to take Questions Nos. 239 and 247 together. Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) is a state body established under the Horse and Greyhound Racing Act, 2001, and is responsible for the overall administration, promotion and development of the horse racing industry. Rásaíocht Con Éireann (RCÉ) is a state body, established under the Greyhound Industry Act, 1958 chiefly...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (11 May 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: There has been a phenomenal level of demand for the National Liming Programme with 4.5 million tonnes sought by almost 41,000 applicants. To put this in context, the annual tonnage of lime applied nationally in recent years has ranged from 700,000 tonnes to 1.4 million tonnes. This includes applications of lime on those farms ineligible for support under the Programme. The level of...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Supports (11 May 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I have long supported the cohort of farmers known as the forgotten farmers and I have committed to supporting them who find themselves, in many cases, in this situation through no fault of their own. My Department has developed a preliminary outline of a proposal to provide support to the forgotten farmer group. There are a number of issues to be addressed, for example, the funding...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Turf Cutting (11 May 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: ACRES is the €1.5bn Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme and is the central agri-environment climate measure in Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan (CSP) 2023-2027. Participants in ACRES commit to undertake, under their ACRES contract, certain actions for a period of five years. As the Deputy may be aware, there are two approaches within the Scheme: • ACRES Co-operation...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (11 May 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: For Direct Payment support measures, such as the Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers, a young farmer is defined as having a maximum age limit of 40, meet the conditions for head of the agricultural holding, and hold the appropriate training and/or skills required.  For young farmer support schemes administered by my Department the appropriate training and/or skills are defined...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (11 May 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I propose to take Questions Nos. 244 and 246 together. The new and ambitious €1.3bn Forestry Programme 2023-2027 will replace the previous Forestry Programme of 2014-2020 (extended to 2022) which expired at the end of 2022. My Department has been engaging intensively with the Commission over the last few months. Once State Aid approval that has been received we will be in a position...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (11 May 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has delivered considerable reductions in the backlog of all forestry licences as well as reductions in the time taken to process newer files and last year we had another significant year-on-year increase in the number of licences issued. The overall backlog of licences on hand over four months reduced from 6,000 applications in...